ALLENTOWN SETS AMBULANCE SERVICE GOAL

BILL GERNERD, The Morning CallTHE MORNING CALL

Feb. 1 is the target for Allentown to become the first Lehigh Valley municipality to operate advanced life-support ambulances staffed by paramedics, Gary Gurian, city health director, told the Allentown Health Board yesterday.

Gurian used that announcement to again push for the establishment of a Lehigh County Health Department, which, he said, "could help spur the development of what would be a comprehensive, well-coordinated and low-cost, all-paramedic, advanced life-support-equipped medical service throughout the county."

Reiterating what he told the board one month ago, he said, "1990 is my goal for having a county health department established."

Gurian told the board the Health Bureau, which recently took over jurisdiction of the city's ambulance service, "has recruited its second team of eight specially trained and certified paramedics."

"They are all experienced paramedics, who, together with the bureau's existing paramedic team, will help assure that the highest quality and advanced prehospital emergency medical care is available for all people who live and work in Allentown," he said.

The bureau director said the new advanced life-support ambulance also should be ready for service by Feb. 1. He said both advanced life-support units and the paramedics staffing them will be working out of Central Fire Station. "We have verbal approval to that effect, but we are still looking for written approval," he said.

His announcement that both units, at least for several months, will be working out of Central Fire Station appears to end a dispute between the bureau and the Fire Department, which insisted there was no floor space available in the fire station for a second ambulance.

City Council earlier this week indicated it would consider adding an amount yet to be determined to the 1986 capital improvements budget to cover the cost of a separate facility for the Health Bureau and the ambulance service. It is anticipated council will act on that matter at its Dec. 18 meeting.

The provision of the expanded life-support ambulance service, according to Gurian, represents completion of the first stage of the bureau's comprehensive plan to upgrade the city's ambulance service.

"Stage II, to be completed in 1986, calls for improving and enhancing the Fire Department's rescue squad capability and communications center dispatcher training," said Gurian. "Stage II also calls for exploring the feasibility of extending the 911 telephone emergency access number to all portions of the city.

"Currently, a small percentage of the city residences are not covered by this life-saving telephone exchange, notably those residents living in the city with telephone exchanges beginning with 395 and 398," said Gurian.

The bureau director told the board the advent of two paramedic-staffed units makes it no longer necessary for city residents to pay subscription costs for emergency care to surrounding area ambulance corps.

Gurian doesn't feel that the "extra expense" for city residents is necessary because "the people who live and work in Allentown are assessed no additional fee for the service provided by the bureau."

"And second, and more important, the city's medical service capability is a few notches above all other ambulance services found in surrounding communities," he said.

He explained that surrounding ambulance corps "do not offer an all- paramedic advanced life-support service. Their services are generally provided by emergency medical technicians, who provide admirable service but do not have the education and training of paramedics."

Gurian said he hopes the upgrading of the city's service "will spur surrounding Lehigh Valley communities into developing a similar all-paramedic, advanced life-support capability."

"The potential of saving many additional lives would be measurably increased through the delivery of this type of prehospital emergency medical service," he said.